Leaving for Orientation 10-13-12 in Tulsa,Ok

Melton is trying to make a Liar out of me , I hauled 2 loads last week NO TARP!!!, one was plastic pipe for a water main in BFE Kansas, Other was some Limestone Slab's ( rocks ) from Kansas to Michigan. and THEN I had a load of Insulation.... well a guy a few years back fell off the load and sued them so NOW they load it , put your tarps up top , Brace it where your straps go and THEN PAD IT AND ROLL YOUR tarps down the sides almost Perfectly square so all you do is roll up 1' of sides and bungeee. easiest week ever , last week was 2844 , this week will finish somewhere between 2800 and 3000. so , I am a temporary Liar until I have to go back to tarping everything lol. Weather has been good , little cold a week or two ago like 30's but this weeek it started off warm like 70-80's and today was all around the 40's which is jacket weather when your flatbedding- cause you warm up working and moving around pretty fast , I have built up a good sweat wearing a jacket in the 50's a few times. Nobody should kid themselves , I certainly don't view this as hard work , but you do work for a few hours every other day and there is no getting around it. Today was weird , left Chicago ( west side ) going east at 2:40 am to make a 8-10 am drop in michigan and get a possible pickup later in the day so I didnt sit all weekend and ended up being done at 5 with a sweet load ( the above mentioned foam insulation ) which is only 12'6" high and about 15k weight. Hills are going to be sweet this run. Doubt I will see 8th gear more than twice on hills. You don't have to work hard many guys don't but whats the point in being otr away from home and your family if you don't make money. I worked graves for a few years so getting up early is literally nothing to me , before I would have cried you a river I am sure.
The loads are absolutely not typical , I have hauled sacks on pallets,coils both steel and aluminum( some even for scrap to be melted down recycle style ),Plywood sheeting,2"x4"x14' long boards, a few loads of steel bar,steel and plastic pipe, big ole rocks, jet engine stands, Foam insulation,and many more loads about 3 a week for the last month and a half anyways. I Typicaly assume its going to be some type of building supply and have been wrong a few times which isn't a bad surprise. Wood is easiest in my opinion , easy to strap/tarp. you can load it pretty fast and they don't go crazy with safety requirements at most lumber yards which typically ony make it harder and take longer. Please don't take my opinion as all stating fact and this is the only way it could ever be , its just my opinion and how it has been for me. The biggest time and labor deciding factor is you and the decisions you make , I have done quite a few things that took another minute or 40 and usually am glad. more securement and less tarp flapping are my normal motives. Today I put 4 straight straps under my load and 5 outside with a twist , why , cause 1000+ miles of a 48' long 7' side tarp will bubble like a mofo and flap like its a paper bag.and straight straps outside your tarp not pushing on anything will also sing and try to wear out/fatigue so it was all intentional . looks like a million bucks to me and goes down the road GREAT. I do realize a lot of people will criticize cause I have a few straps outside my load but keep in mind I can see down the side of my trailer which is important to me . If the load was a little wider it might not have been as helpful to do it this way but its a few inches narrower than the trailer on both sides so there is a gap.

 

I have a few peeps not on my christmas list , there are like 1200-1500 employees working here so I think its not much different than any other place to work at in that respect. Like I said I have made a few non- friends but whatever, I hope your situation works out the way you want it to . Skunk life is just too short and it doesnt sound like a " safety issue " sounds more like a " manure happens " issue where imperfect decisions were made , had people been hurt I certainly would see it different but who honestly makes it through a driving career without a tree branch in your tarp or a owl stuck in your grill cause the dumb bird can't see where he is going. Stuff happens , sucks when people are petty. The DAC report makes this job dynamically harder and not necessarily fairly. It needs and overhaul already and it hasn't been around that long , maybe Obama will fix it ?






( don't even bother responding to that , you will only be wasting your time ) almost forgot a

 

yep yep , I do like it. days are getting much easier , have fun at home I am taking most of christmas off myself.

 

update time.

Christmas really changes the month of december, Next year I will be taking off the 10 days before christmas and the 6 days after it. December was really rough. I ended up sitting ( nowhere to go - no load to be had ) for many days. about 5 last week . The last 2 weeks have been something else , and I don't blame Melton. They back up what they say or try very ,very hard and it affects every driver. They got me home for Christmas - just like they said they would and this is way more difficult than I imagined for a trucking company. Last week I had a 700 ish mile week just 2 very low mile loads , it wasnt Melton's fault or mine , freight is bad in the last half of December , and this week I had 1 load that got me home so only about 1200 miles total empty and loaded miles. The funny thing is , I still have the load - it delivers after christmas and its just sitting on a trailer for 5 days of my hometime , consignee doesnt want it yet , its rusty pipe for culverts I have been told so nothing exotic.b People should understand that most of the freight is rediculously underpriced to move this month and Brokers and shippers take FULL advantage of the month and the trucking industry by putting rates up that would never move any other time of the year . So in order for Trucking companies to move Drivers and generate any type of revenue they end up taking loads for absurd low rates. I just want to thank Melton for getting me home .

I have made quite a few good friends when picking up or dropping off loads Melton Drivers have always been friendly and offered a lot of wisdom to me when asked. I decided to patch my tarps last week and should have taken a picture but didn't. I backed my trailer next to another one to roll out my tarp on 2 trailer decks since they were both empty. It was cool just 2 - 53' trailers 3" apart. So I unrolled my tarps and then about 5 other Melton Drivers came over and all started cutting and gluing and cleaning patches on my tarps . I didn't ask them they just jumped up there and did it. Super great guys. Made patching 2 Lumber Tarps a breeze and now they are in GREAT SHAPE.

Merry Christmas

 

This is a Pic I took of a bunch of Melton Trucks , their were more but some guys went different places after unloading. We hauled metal power poles up to Kansas from Texas and had just unloaded .

 

jpeg name is .50 is that a 50 ? have you considered getting it gold plated and maybe some pearl sideplates ?

Just teasing ya its pretty cool ,I have always been into big revolvers myself.